Updated Pass/No Pass Guidelines for Faculty and Advisors

In response to Vice Provost for Student Academic Success and Dean of Undergraduate Education Beth Hume’s request, we have updated EHE’s College Proposed Guidelines for the Pass/No Pass Amendment.

Dr. Hume is recommending that unless a letter grade is required by a licensure or accreditation board, the University’s strong preference is to give students the P/NP option using a “D” grade as a threshold. Additionally, if faculty decide to exclude courses from the P/NP option (with the D threshold), regardless of accreditation/licensure, then those courses should remain graded with the A-E grading scale (and not propose a different P/NP threshold like a C-). Dr. Hume is hoping faculty keep this to a minimum, given the intention behind the P/NP policy expansion is to help as many Ohio State undergraduates as possible, as most are struggling tremendously in coping with the pandemic and transitioning to a fully virtual learning atmosphere.

In addition, Dr. Alicia Bertone, Dean of the Graduate School, made it clear that this issue is also a pressing issue for graduate students. Dr. Bertone reported that the Graduate Council, made up of faculty and students, will be voting on the graduate P/NP policy and is in full support of a C- as a Pass for the P/NP option. The Graduate School is encouraging all Graduate and Professional programs to support the C- as a consistent support of the students.

To this end, our updated guidelines include:

Undergraduate Guidelines

• Extend the deadline for students to declare P/NP for Spring Semester 2020 courses to April 17, 2020;

• EHE students may choose one or more Spring 2020 courses as P/NP;

• EHE students can elect P/NP to apply to general education (GE), elective, minor and major courses with the “D” threshold for a Pass (exception courses listed below);

• EHE exception courses, to be excluded from the P/NP option, include such courses as those that have state requirements for accreditation/licensure, endorsements, and core reading courses. These exception courses should remain graded with the A-E grading scale.

Graduate Guidelines

• Extend the deadline for students to declare P/NP for Spring Semester 2020 courses to April 17, 2020;

• EHE students may choose one or more Spring 2020 courses as P/NP;

• EHE students can elect P/NP to apply to graduate courses with a “C-” threshold for a Pass (exception courses listed at the bottom of this document);

• EHE exception courses, to be excluded from the P/NP option, include such courses as those that have state requirements for accreditation/licensure, endorsements, and core reading courses. These exception courses should remain graded with the A-E grading scale.

As a College, we need to be respectful of other colleges’ decisions regarding their grading policies as we would expect our decisions to be respected. Therefore, we are strongly advising all faculty not to change any policy regarding courses that do not belong to our college. This is a time for everyone to be flexible, respectful, and operate in the best interest of our students.

At the same time, students need to be reminded, that for all exception courses and programs, state requirements do not change. So, students need to be mindful that if they choose to take required content courses as P/NP, they are jeopardizing the required content GPA of 2.75.

Students should consult with their faculty advisor, academic advisor, or their department contact person before electing the P/NP option because there may be unintended consequences. P/NP grades do not factor into GPA calculations, so such a grade cannot lower or raise a student’s GPA.

Our aim is to implement these guidelines as quickly and as equitably for our students as possible. Please feel free to contact anyone on our leadership team.

Website Information

We are live on this website: https://ehe.osu.edu/pass-no-pass-information-ehe/.

There is also a bar on the main EHE site at https://ehe.osu.edu that sends students to that page.

The main university site: https://oaa.osu.edu/grading-policy-changes-spring-2020 also links to us.

Leadership Team

• Patti Brosnan, Chair of the College Curriculum Committee,

• Tami Augustine, Director of Accreditation, Placement, and Licensure

Department Contact Persons

• Educational Studies: Antoinette Miranda

• Human Sciences: Gene Folden

• Teaching and Learning: Tiffany Wild

• Casey Henceroth, Supervisor of the College University Advisors

Pass/Non-Pass Exception Courses for EHE